Too many special features can actually get in the way of enjoying a virtual museum exhibit online, according to new research.

“What this study suggests is that, just like curators need to be coherent in the content of the exhibit, they need to be conscious of the tools that they employ in their virtual museums,” says S. Shyam Sundar, professor of communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory at Penn State.

Many museum curators hope to create an authentic experience in their online museums by using technology to mimic aspects of the social, personal, and physical aspects of a real-world museum experience. However, a more-is-better approach to technology may actually hinder that authentic experience, the researchers suggest.

Live chat, 3D navigation, and more

In a study, visitors to an online virtual art museum found that technology tools used to communicate about and navigate through the exhibits were considered helpful when they were available separately, but less so when they were offered together.

The researchers tested customization tools that helped the participants create their own art gallery, live-chat technology to facilitate communication with other visitors, and 3D navigation tools that some participants used to explore the museum.

“When live chat and customization are offered together, for example, the combination of tools may be perceived to have increased usability, but it turns out using either customization or live chat separately was greater than either both functions together, or neither of the functions,” says Sundar. “We saw similar results not just with perceived usability, but also with sense of control and agency.”

The live chatting tool gave participants a feeling of social presence in the museum, but when live chatting was used in conjunction with the 3D navigation tool, the visitor had less of a sense of control, says Sundar.

Similarly, participants indicated the live chatting function lessened the realistic experience of the 3D tool, according to the researchers, who suggested that chatting may increase the user’s cognitive burden as they try to navigate through the site.

Each of these tools carries unique meaning for users, Sundar says. While customization provides an individualized experience, live-chatting signals a social experience of the site.

News websites, too?

“Our data also suggest that expert users prefer tools that offer more agency or control to users whereas novices appreciate a variety of tools on the interface,” he adds.

Users may react to these tools on other online platforms, not just during visits to online museums, Sundar says.

“We might be able to apply this research on tools you might add to news sites, for example, or it could be used to improve educational sites and long-distance learning,” he adds. “You just have to be careful about how you deploy the tools because more is not always better.”

The researchers recruited 126 participants for the study. The subjects were assigned one of eight different website variations that tested their reactions to customization, live chat, 3D navigation, and combinations of those tools during their visit to a virtual version of the Museum of Modern Art. The museum’s artworks were available through the Google Art Project.

Coauthors are from Western Illinois University, Towson University, and Penn State.